ALBUM REVIEW: Babyshambles - Shotter's Nation

Babyshambles
Shotter’s Nation
EMI / Astralwerks, 2007
** out of 5

If Pete Doherty spent a fraction of the time nursing his muse that he spends on his Dionysian tabloid exploits, Babyshambles might be a good band. As it is, with his constant media overexposure, mostly for stints in rehab and stepping out with his ex-gal, super-skinny Kate Moss, there’s a good deal of expectation greeting Shotter’s Nation. It hardly matters a whit that this is their second album, because amidst these rather pedestrian songs is the vague unease that it’s all a wind-up, and someone’s having a wheeze at our expense. Really, if Doherty weren’t famous already, I sincerely doubt that anyone would pay any attention to this record.

Oh sure, it wasn’t always this way. Before he broke into Carl Barat’s apartment and burgled his goods, Doherty and Barat had a pretty good thing going with a band called The Libertines. Their second, eponymous album is a dirty and excellent burst of energy that stands at the vanguard of the garage-rock revival. However, relations between the two became understandably strained, and The Libertines were put on hold. Since then, most of the world was introduced to Mr. Doherty’s talents through his drunken and embarrassing duet with Sir Elton John, singing Marc Bolan’s Children of the Revolution at 2005’s Live 8 concert. Sir Elton looked royally pissed off, and rightfully so. Pete Doherty was excruciating to watch.

Anyway, of Shotter’s Nation: it’s a dull and ordinary album that ten years from now no one will ever play. This is quite surprising when you look at the number of people involved in its creation. No fewer than six people, including on one track, ex-Stone Roses singer Ian Brown, make up the writing team. It was produced by Stephen Street, whose CV includes albums by The Smiths and most of Blur’s best work. Surely, not every one involved could have been as wasted as Pete Doherty sounds? How could they justify this album’s existence? Maybe it’s just a case of the king wearing no clothes.

More charitable reviews have compared There She Goes favorably to The Cure’s Lovecats. I can see that. You’d have to be blind not to. It sounds exactly the same. The beginning of Delivery pinches some Kinks, and most of the tracks exude those cheeky-chappie two-square beats that many thought had been laid to rest with the demise of Britpop.

The songs meander around, grounded only by the journeyman skills of Adam Ficek on drums and Drew McConnell on bass. There’s nothing extraordinary going on here, but they’re playing with solid skill which gives a lot of these disjointed musings some kind of structure. Overall though, it’s pretty obvious that Babyshambles must release a better record or else the public is going to forget all about that sad little indie-rocker Pete Doherty and his Arthur Rimbaud aspirations.

Review by Greg Hood-Morris

Agree? Disagree? Email Greg at criticizegreg@gmail.com